Here is what Mayor Bloomberg said about the noise crackdown in New York City dubbed Operation Silent Nights.

"We here must alert the police forces around North America that targeting noise not only pacifies a neighborhood and starves breeding criminal behavior, it also nets felons and other lawbreakers.

"Aggressive quality of life enforcement has been the foundation of the NYPD's crime-fighting success-a strategy I might remind you Ray Kelly first championed in 1993 during his first tenure as Commissioner. And we've maintained that strategy. That's why in our first week in office, we launched Operation Clean Sweep, aimed at offenses like aggressive panhandling.

"Over the last 18 months, since Ray Kelly and I went to a street corner in Queens to announce that initiative, the NYPD has issued more than 161,000 summonses and made more than 15,000 quality of life arrests. In the process, we've also made arrests for more serious crimes; in one instance, a man arrested for trespassing turned out to be wanted for shooting a police officer in New Mexico.

"We found that the vast majority of quality of life complaints are noise-related. Calls to the city's 311 hotline confirm that, too. So, last October, we also launched Operation Silent Night. It targets areas in which there have been a high volume-excuse the pun-of community noise complaints.

"To date, it has produced more than 4,000 arrests, including more than 800 felony arrests, and over 60,000 summonses. It's wildly popular with New Yorkers eager for some peace and quiet in their home neighborhoods. And by curbing disorderly behavior, it has helped prevent the kind of serious crime that is on the rise in other cities.

"The results are confirmed by national crime figures-just released a week ago. On the FBI's overall crime index for 2002, New York ranked safest among the 10 largest cities in the U.S.

"We ranked 203rd out of the nation's 225 cities of 100,000 or more population. That puts us right between Garden Grove, California and Henderson, Nevada.

"We won't rest on our laurels. We've kept a focus on quality of life enforcement-and that's one reason that crime in the transit system, for example, is down 15% so far this year. We also continue to devise new ways to drive crime down."